As the environmental and economic costs of energy consumption become more apparent increasing attention has been paid to energy conservation. Energy conservation not only saves the consumer money, but also limits the societal need for additional power generation facilities and their associated economic and environmental costs. In conserving energy, the least drastic behavioral measures are associated with eliminating wasted consumption; consumption that affords the consumer little, if any, benefit.
The lodging industry maintains large numbers of self-contained rooms each having separate thermostats and electrical outlets. A lodging patron often leaves a room for hours at a time in a state of high energy consumption through climate control settings and operation of electrical appliances and lights. The patron often has little concern for reducing energy consumption in a paid lodging. In such an instance, the lodging patron, absent from the room, derives no benefit from additional energy consumption. Energy consumption represents 3 to 6 percent of the gross revenue in the lodging industry. Additionally, renters of apartments and people who reside in condominiums and residences also have the opportunity to significantly reduce power consumption, but may lack financial incentive to do so.
The predominate method of occupancy control across the world is with the use of the room keycard. Quality properties in Europe and Asia have been using keycard occupancy control for years. However, many of these systems are hardwired. This prior art attempts to limit energy consumption in vacant or unoccupied lodging rooms utilizing a door keycard inserted into an electrical controller. The electrical controller of this prior art system required retrofitting hardwired systems that control electrical switches within the room. The labor and room downtime associated with such a hardwiring retrofit has limited the acceptance of this prior art system. Thus, there exists a need for a lodging energy conservation system that will operate without resort to a hardwired installation of a master controller and controlled electrical power sources.